First Mirasol eReader Goes On Sale

It is almost two years to the day when Qualcomm first demoed
its low power colour screen technology called Mirasol, and only now has it revealed the first
device to feature it.

Mirasol is an ultra low power colour screen technology
which, like e-ink, consumes no power when static and can be easily read in
direct sunlight. Unlike e-ink though, it also uses a fraction (around 30 per cent) of the power of
today's LCDs when showing dynamic content.

Qualcomm’s technology will be seen first in a 5.7in ereader
from South Korean manufacturer Kyobo (not to be confused with Kobo) which has
gone on sale in the company’s home territory today with a price of around £200.

Mirasol, which is Qualcomm’s entrance to the display
industry, incurred an operating loss of more than $300 million for its fiscal
year 2012 as it ramps up production.

The Kyobo eReader’s 5.7in touchscreen has a resolution of 1024
x 768 (223ppi) and is powered by a single-core 1GHz Snapdragon processor. It
will be running Android 2.3.

The major benefit of the Mirasol display is power efficiency
with the ereader promising “weeks of reading” on a single charge but that comes
with a rather large caveat – that you only read for 30 minutes a day and set
the brightness at 25 per cent.

Mirasol screens certainly offer some of the best features of
e-ink and LCD in one, but whether the technology will gain widespread adoption
is as yet unclear. We wait to hear whether the Kyobo ereader will go on sale
outside of South Korea
but for now, let us know in the comments if you think that this technology is the
future.